This invention relates to a dental implement for dispensing and compacting amalgam into a tooth cavity. It concerns, more particularly, an amalgam dispenser adapted to be locked with the plugger or amalgam tamper in an extended position so that the implement may be used to condense the filling.
Conventionally, the dentist has used an amalgam dispenser in filling a patient's cavity and then another dental implement was used to compact the amalgam to the proper degree of firmness. From a practical standpoint, this procedure was both time consuming and inconvenient. To avoid the inconvenience of changing dental instruments, the disclosure of an amalgam carrier in U.S. Pat. No. 1,797,866, issued Mar. 24, 1931, to C. S. Ivory, suggests at page 2, lines 47-65, that the dispenser also may be used to pack the amalgam into the cavity. This is accomplished by depressing a spring-actuated lever which raises a tubular amalgam carrier on a plunger shaft thereby dispensing the amalgam into the cavity. By maintaining the lever in the lowered position the plunger remains extended beyond the end of the tubular carrier. Provided the dental practitioner's finger is not released, the plunger may be used to tamp the amalgam. Although the device represents an improvement over the practice of using a separate dental implement for the compacting operation, it requires the practitioner to first, physically hold the lever in a particular lowered position and second, adopt a grip on the implement that maintains the lever in the lowered position while at the same time permitting a workable compacting motion. Thus, in practice, hand movement is restricted and the compacting process becomes cumbersome and time consuming.